5V to 240V conversion
All of my early projects were 5V - a legacy from my Arduino days. When I ditched the Arduino in favour firstly of the Nano and the Pro Mini, and then later for "raw" ATMega 328/168/88 chips, I kept the 3x1.5V AA power delivery configuration that had served all of those projects so well.
For a few recent projects however, it was more appropriate to use some old phone chargers to deliver 5V (or otherwise) to provide power, and thus no switching of batteries required!
For instance - the Cat Laser Toy and the Rowing Exercise Clock are both plugged in via 5V adapters.
I have been making PIR activated digital clocks for some time (pre-blog and pre-YT) which have been chugging away quite happily in many homes over many years.
The clocks sit around sleeping most of the time, but when they detect a warm presence via the PIR, they poll a DS3231 module for time and temperature, display these on a TM1637 display, and then go to sleep again.
The downside is that those 3xAA batteries need to be replaced from time to time depending on the frequency of sleep interruption. In a high-traffic area such as our kitchen/dining room, this could be as often as once every 3 months - too much!
I have tried using NiMH - but it is difficult to find high capacity versions that give more than a few weeks of service - inconvenient!
So for this project I am taking one of my "high traffic" clocks and putting in a 5V conversion via an AC/DC converter and a USB module.
Is it successful - time will tell (pun intended)?
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